Zhang Huan was born on 1965 in Yang City, He Nan Province, China he Lives and works in New York, China. After he was born, he moved to the country with his paternal grandmother and three brothers and lived there for about eight years. It was in important experience as it allowed him to grow up with nature and develop a direct relationship with it, with no inhibitions. He only went back to An Yang later and it was a pretty radical move, as it's a fairly big city, about five million people. He moved to Beijing a lot later. The first years spent in the city were pretty dramatic. I was very undisciplined, especially at school and a terrible student. I couldn't concentrate; they were always throwing me out. I couldn't stay shut up in a room, I wanted to be free. So I spent most of my time alone drawing. In a certain way that's how it began.

Three years in making, Donkey was completed in 2006 and was the very first mechanical installation Zhang Huan made after he transferred part of his artistic production from New York back to Shanghai. The artist was both overwhelmed and dismayed by the overbearing and standardized presence of high-rises in the city. Other works such as the well-known To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, which took place on August 15, 1997, involved the participation of other performers. Forty or more participants, recent migrants to Beijing from other parts of China, were invited to walk into the pond in order to raise the water level, an absurd gesture that nonetheless underscores the far reaching effects of even the slightest movement or gesture.

While the move to America and the rapid growth of his international reputation enabled Zhang to work on increasingly ambitious scale ( Hard to Acclimatize/My America , 1999, held at the Seattle Art Museum and My Australia , 2000, held at the National Gallery of Australia) , he still continued to produce works in which he was the sole participant. Peace was produced shortly after his best-known work Family Tree and shares some of the same preoccupations.

Conclusions:

After Zhang Huan was born, he moved to the country with his paternal grandmother and three brothers and lived there for about eight years. He had already established his own style and the impact of the work had won him a strong reputation in Chinese art circles...

What to Do Next...

If you want any information about Zhang Huan or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/zhang_huan.htm